Sooo... I kind of published this faster than the last chapter...

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Enjoy!

"Ah," the Hokage exclaimed, clasping his hands together to show his enthusiasm at my decision. "Perfect!

I shuffled my feet, standing uncomfortably by Shisui's side. We had just informed the Hokage of my choice to leave the academy, and his joy over it was almost suffocating. Now more than ever, I was grateful for how the boy's height caused him to tower over me; it gave me a sense of safety, and that was gladly welcomed regardless of whether or not I was actually safe. With that being said, judging by how my heart felt more and more heavy with each word that came out of the Hokage's mouth, I'd have to conclude that I definitely wasn't safe—not in the slightest of ways.

I had somehow—despite my best efforts not to—gotten myself even more deeply involved in the shinobi world.

"So Shisui-kun, shall I take you off the active nin roster now so you can start tutoring Mai-chan immediately?" The Hokage's way of addressing Shisui was so informal—so casual—that both he and I almost missed what had been said. Our reactions when we did comprehend the sentence, however, did not fail to entertain.

"Excuse me?" Shisui and I spoke in unison, too overwhelmed with disbelief to speak in any proper manner.

"Ah, did I fail to mention that in our last meeting? I apologize, but is there any problem with the assignment?" the Hokage asked with a benign smile, but his innocence to his failure in conveying the information was betrayed by the sharpness in his eyes.

"No, maybe we were just too inattentive to hear about it last time," Shisui responded, though it was clear to all three of us in the room that his words were only said out of pure courtesy. In reality, they meant something along the lines of, 'I'll go along with your orders, even if I don't want to.'

"I see," the Hokage's smile seemed more strained, as if his words were not what he truly wanted to say. "Now you'll be able to spend more time with your clan. You requested more domestic missions for that, right?" It was clear that they were speaking in code; all of their responses thinly veiled much darker secrets.

Unfortunately for me, I was all too aware of what they really meant.

The Uchiha massacre had always been prominent in my mind; every interaction I had with the happy Sasuke gutted me with the knowledge of how destroyed that happiness would soon be. But even so, I hadn't realized how quickly time was passing. Already, forces beyond my little existence in this world had begun to move—begun to orchestrate that tragedy. For all I knew, Obito could have been conspiring with Danzo at that very moment, or Danzo was working out the kinks in Shisui's murder.

It took every bit of will I had amassed from both my lifetimes to not expose myself with one of my infamous panic attacks.

Instead, I carefully recomposed myself and began to listen more attentively to their conversation.

"Be sure to inform me if anything interesting transpires—with Mai-chan's progress, I mean." That was definitely not what he meant.

In that moment, Shisui appeared older than ever to me, adorning a fake smile. "Of course."

Shisui turned to me, looking down at me with an expression I had never seen on his face before. It was the image of pure resignation—he was fully aware of what he was really agreeing to by accepting his position as my new instructor. There was something else there, though—a lingering sadness in his eyes, one that was only emphasized by the delicate framing of his lashes. He placed his hand on my shoulder that was furthest from him, using it as leverage to pull me closer to his side.

"I guess I'm your new sensei." His words came with a lopsided grin, but that did little to conceal the hurt that he had accidentally revealed to me just moments before.

His maturity often baffled me, and now was no exception. Fighting tears at how ugly the world had to be to place a child in such a precarious situation, I gave him my own faux display of enthusiasm at our new predicament. "If you're not careful, I'm gonna get stronger than you one day, Shisui-sensei."

"I'm glad you two have no apparent issue with this." For once, the Hokage seemed genuine as he himself thinly masked his own sadness at what he was asking Shisui to do. "I'll leave the training regiment up to you, Shisui-kun, but I advise you to not be afraid of straying from the traditional academy education. I advise you to use the Uchiha grounds for this, but if need be, the Third Training Ground will be open to you, too."

I struggled to hide my annoyance at how confident he was that I'd eventually come around to the idea of leaving Naruto on his own at the academy to focus on my own improvement. Arranging for an entire training ground to be kept open wasn't a spur of the moment decision—he had to have asked for it the minute we left the day before. Did I really seem that unloyal to Naruto?

It took a few seconds for Shisui to respond.

"I appreciate it, Hokage-sama." He, too, seemed irked at the arrangements the Third had made for our training.

And with that—four simple words that were probably often spoken by many active shinobi—both our fates had been set in stone. I repressed the urge to flinch away as Shisui stuck out his hand for me to hold, signalling that the meeting was over.

Begrudgingly, I took it—my own way of choosing compliance in the direction life was tugging me.

We walked out of the tower in dignified silence; both of us were too preoccupied with mulling over our future course of actions to spare time for useless small talk. I was in no mood to put up a front for the boy, and—going by his scarcely concealed frown—he was in no mood to entertain me with false appearances either. It would've been a relieving break from my show of feigned ignorance had I not been fretting over just how absolutely fucked I was.

"Training Ground Three?" Shisui spoke thoughtfully, apparently tired of the eery quietness.

"Unless we were too inattentive to hear again, then yes," I quipped back, unable to keep my vexation under wraps for any longer.

"Would you accuse the Hokage of purposely withholding information?" His voice rose in pitch as he defended himself.

An almost maniacal grin manifested on my face as I caught note of his slip up. He was too off guard around me, though to be fair, I would be too. All he saw from his perspective was a little kid who might have had good observation and comprehension skills.

"Who said anything about purposely withholding information? I was just thinking that perhaps the old man had finally gone senile—just like what Naruto claims," I chirped, clearly lying.

For a moment, Shisui seemed to have debated whether or not to comment on my attentiveness to his exact wording—a skill few children should have developed by my age. He appeared to have settled for the latter option, choosing instead to change the subject once more. "That training ground was known for creating legends, y'know."

"Hmm?" I hummed, pretending to be ignorant to the infamy that surrounded the various training grounds. In reality, I knew exactly what he was talking about, but I would have much rather talked about superstitions in Konoha than the mystery behind my seemingly prodigal-level of verbal comprehension.

"The Sannin were all trained there by good ole' Hokage-sama! Maybe some of their luck will rub off on you."

"Really? That's interesting. Maybe it will." I forced a giddy laugh.

The conversation was painstakingly bland and wholly artificial, and both he and I knew it.

"There's more to you being my new instructor than what the Hokage is saying, isn't there?" Perhaps taking the forthright approach wasn't my best decision, but there was little I could to to retract my words after they had already been said.

Shisui smiled wryly. "Iruka-san was right about you being observant."

"You're deflecting again."

"If you're smart enough to understand that I'm deflecting, then you're definitely smart enough to know why I'm deflecting."

I couldn't argue against that; he was right. The reason for his not-so-subtle change in topic was clear to anyone who knew about the confidentiality that went hand in hand with all things involving shinobi.

"When are we gonna start training?" Now it was my turn to divert where the conversation seemed to be heading. I had no desire to discuss my unnatural knack for understanding things that required background knowledge far beyond my years.

Their chances of guessing where my abnormal intelligence came from was miniscule, but there nonetheless. Call me batshit crazy for it, but I had no intentions of testing God's charitability when it came to things involving the trainwreck of a life that I'd been twice-given.

"Tomorrow. Meet me at the training field after I drop off Naruto." Shisui barely had to think of a suitable time for us to meet up. He either had incredible memory and had tomorrow's schedule completely memorized, or he had predicted that the Hokage was going to assign me to him before today's meeting and had already thought out what he would do.

For some reason, I figured it was the latter option. Naruto and I had only been with him for a couple months, but we had already become fully aware of how ditzy the prodigal Uchiha could be. In more than one instance, his awful attention-span and lack of alertness to all things not-dire had gotten Naruto and I instated as his unofficial guest greeters who showed people that Shisui had forgotten about inviting over in.

"Sure thing," I replied.

I glanced up now, finally taking notice of where he and I had walked to while buried deep in this conversation that served solely to preserve our image of the other. Somehow we had made it to the main Uchiha section of the village. While our apartment complex was located at the far edge of the area, this time we stood at the very center of it, surrounded by completely normal people carrying on as normal people do. I felt no malice from them, and I certainly didn't feel anything that indicated that they were conspiring something so awful that they deserved a death sentence.

The massacre was just too cruel.

"Shisui. Mai-chan," Itachi greeted, conveniently being in the same area as Shisui and I.

I, like I always did, flinched back in acknowledgment of his presence, but the two boys were used to this behavior now and paid little attention to it.

"Itachi-kun!" Shisui shouted, now giving a genuine show of happiness as he left my side to run over to where his best friend stood. He slung a loose arm over Itachi's shoulder and pulled him in for a friendly hug.

"So…" He let the word draw out to enhance the dramatic effect of the proceeding question. "Why do you seem more glum than usual?"

Itachi and I both displayed matching looks of comical surprise at Shisui's keen observation. While we were both well aware of the young boy's position in Konoha's ANBU unit, he rarely showcased any of his abilities. While reading emotions was a skill that was expected to come at ease to shinobi, being able to read the emotions of a fellow ANBU operative was a whole other story.

"Sasuke is… with Naruto-kun and Nara-san... " Itachi stated, not bothering to elaborate further on why that fact upset him so much.

While I was visibly confused, Shisui immediately nodded in understanding, and a grin that alluded to soon-to-come unrelenting teasing made its way onto his face.

"Is the ever-so stoic Itachi-kun feeling left behind by his little brother?"

I blinked, unable to comprehend what I had just heard. There was no way Itachi 'I'll slaughter my entire family rather than search for a less gruesome alternative' Uchiha could feel jealousy over such a petty situation. It just wasn't possible.

But judging from the soft flush of pink—a blush—that spread across his cheeks, Shisui had hit the nail on the head.

Itachi avoided answering his inquiry. "Sasuke-kun can play with who he wants with."

"Yes, he can, but the question is: do you want him to?"

"I have no control over what he does."

That was a definite,'No.'

If the idea wasn't so absolutely preposterous, I would have sworn that the younger Uchiha had momentarily pouted.

Standing alone, the circumstance that I was in was absolutely hilarious. Few people had ever witnessed the child prodigy actually acting like a child before. When paired together with my knowledge of the tragedy that was about to ensue, however, the air seemed much less light hearted to me than it probably did to the two boys.

It was truly harrowing; my mind could barely grasp the fact that this gentle, blushing boy in front of me would forgo his innocence and kill his family—all for the sake of a village that would ultimately fail to protect the brother that he had committed all those atrocious crimes for anyways. Even a reincarnated fuck-up like me couldn't understand how cruelly ironic this boy's future was destined to be.

What frightened me even more, though, was that, if I really thought about it, I couldn't bring myself to condemn the feelings behind the coup. I hardly had the right to fault the clan for the course of action they had decided to take when I had felt that same unquellable rage that motivated them before, too.

People could be so ugly—so cruel—that every bit of me wanted to empathize with the Uchihas. Though they had committed no wrong, the village still turned against them and even had the nerve to accuse them of starting the horrific Kyuubi attack. Could I honestly blame them for feeling anger at a village who had forsaken them despite the sacrifices they had made for that very same village?

The answer, if I allowed myself time to delve deeper into the situation, was no, especially from someone like me. I had experienced the wrath of the village firsthand by growing up with Naruto, and I would be lying if I said I never once thought of retaliating against one of Naruto's many abusers.

"Come on, Itachi, let's go take Mai to where Naruto. Then you'll have an excuse to spend some time with Sasuke while we update Naruto on where Mai's gonna go."

"Mai's going somewhere?" Itachi questioned, ignoring the small insinuation that he wanted an excuse to find his little brother to acknowledge that other tidbit of information. As he asked this, he moved along with Shisui when the boy walked back to where I stood, something that presumably meant, 'Yes, I will accompany you to find the kids.'

"Ah, it happened so fast that I probably forgot to tell you! The Hokage wants Mai to go through the academy course with a private instructor, and he ended up choosing me to fulfill that role," Shisui spoke, and now it was his turn to blush.

"Is she…?"

"... No, probably not, thankfully."

I cocked my head to the side, looking at the two of them quizzically, but before I could vocalize my confusion, Shisui had grabbed hold of my hand.

"Let's go find the brats."

"Shisui, you're still a brat," Itachi butted in.

"If I'm still a brat then you definitely are too, Itachi-kun," Shisui mocked the honorific, turning the mood to a jovial one once more.

"Hn."

The hum of resignation ended the conversation, and we walked towards their training grounds without any further bickerin. Strangely enough, the stillness was now comforting, not alarming. Even Itachi's close proximity didn't set me off. In return, he seemed unbothered by me—apparently my outburst the week before hadn't caused him to question my character too much.

But like it always is, the peace was brought to a premature stop.

"Itachi! Shisui-kun! And… Mai-chan?" a sweet voiced called out to the three of us, causing our trek towards the boys to halt.

Mikoto Uchiha was a refined woman; that much I could tell. Even when enthusiastically waving her hand and making gestures that would usually make one look like an overexcited idiot, she somehow managed to do those silly actions with effortless grace. Had I still been who I was in my past life(ROsE rosaLiNE rosierOSIEROSIE?), I might have found her on the receiving end of pointless envy.

But I wasn't whoever I was before—a girl whose name could probably no longer even trigger a feeling of nostalgia if it were uttered.

That girl was dead.

Just as dead as Mikoto would be.

And so instead of senseless jealousy, all that consumed me was unadulterated sorrow at the woman's inevitably looming demise—a tragedy made even more tragic(because the Naruto world didn't already have enough as it is) as the death would come at the hands of the one whose name she had just cried so endearingly.

"Mikoto-san!" Shisui had responded to her greeting in place of Itachi and I—his voice contained enough zeal for all three of us.

"It feels like I haven't seen you in a decade, Shisui-kun! You know you're always welcome in our home!" Mikoto's ardor was incapable of being brought down, even by a notch.

"Kaasan," Itachi spoke flatly, apparently used to his mother's unintentionally overwhelming gentleness—a combination I hadn't known was even possible to have until that very moment.

Despite how saddened I was to see Mikoto while knowing of her future death, Itachi's embarrassment was so out of character that I had to stifle a laugh. Who could have guessed that Itachi Uchiha, the infamous clan genius, was capable of feeling a normal, everyday thing like embarrassment at your parents? It was just something so common—so human—that I thought the boy would have been exempt from it by now.

Shisui ignored Itachi's clear annoyance at his mother's familiarity with him, his best friend. "Sorry, Mikoto-san, I've don't meant to be away from the clan for so long. Between this kid and my missions, I've just had my hands full."

I, like I often seemed to do at Shisui's words, blushed as he referenced me. His wording made it sound like Naruto and I were burdens, but there was a distinct lilt of fondness in the way he spoke.

"Ah, speaking of the children, Sasuke-kun was training with his friends, but little Naruto-kun seemed slightly distraught, so I brought them all into our home."

"Distraught?" Shisui and I chorused, entirely focusing our attention on one small part of what she said.

She laughed sweetly at our intense concern over the blond's well-being. "It's nothing dire. Naruto-kun was just sulking over your apparent exit from the academy, Mai-chan." She turned towards me. "Have you perhaps decided that becoming a shinobi isn't something you want to do?"

She wasn't exactly wrong—in fact, she was spot on with that guess(because I really did not want to be a shinobi), but before I could confirm or deny anything, Shisui answered for me.

"Nope. The opposite! Hokage-sama wants to push her towards a quicker graduation, kinda like Itachi and I," he boasted, clearly prideful of my progress despite his limited involvement in it. "But, er, I've kind of been assigned as her sensei."

None of us had made an effort to ensure our conversation was kept hushed, so accidental eavesdropping was inevitable. I wasn't shocked by that. What did take me by surprise was the extent of the response that Shisui's unintentional declaration had garnered. Around us, people suddenly looked much more intrigued as Shisui's new position was revealed to the part of the clan that was present.

"But doesn't he…"

"I thought that…"

"...the village's actions…"

"Shisui-kun?"

"... has to be ANBU!"

Knowing that all those within hearing proximity were people on their side of the upcoming coup—except for me, though the possibility of me being a threat was eliminated because of age—the surrounding Uchiha made no effort to conceal their overly concerned whispers about Shisui's extended leave in ANBU duties. They needed him to be

If only they knew that Shisui was hardly on their side to begin with.

"Kaasan," Itachi repeated, but this time for an entirely different reason.

"We should hurry and go to the children. There's no telling what kind of mischief little ones like them could get into when left to their own devices," Mikoto bubbled, showing no reaction towards the shift in atmosphere whatsoever.

I shivered; she was too skilled at putting up a farce.

"Come on, Mai, let's go." Shisui let go of my hand and picked me up instead, a small action that showed just how much he wanted to leave too.

With that, we all made our exit from the center of the Uchiha clan's scrutiny. Our pace was as conspicuously brisk as we could make it, something that, to me, said all that needed to be said about their attitudes towards the impending coup. Even if they didn't want to admit it, they were clearly trying to avoid all things related to the rebellion.

And that made things a whole lot more complicated.

How could I let these people die?

Ooooooh boy, Mai's starting to gain a more solid resolve towards what she's gonna do about the massacre. Hehe, I wonder what she'll dooooo.

I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! I tried to make it longer than usual to make up for how long I take to publish them! I really am working on updating faster, though.

Please review, even if you've already reviewed once before. I've said it already, but reviews are what motivate me to write for y'all!

Have a great day. :)